Name change | Historic building goes back to past

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By SHAWN BERRY
berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com

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Lt.-Gov. Hermenegilde Chiasson decided New Year's Day was the perfect time to be out with the 'Old.'

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CELEBratiON: Michelle Daigle, left, hams it up for the photographer as Don Rigley looks on. They were playing at Government house on new Year's Day.

The Daily Gleaner/Ray Bourgeois

Left: Marcia Babineau her husband Left: Lt Governor Hermenegilde Chaisson greets Maria Shella and Isabel Mercer at the levy held at the Old Government House.

The Queen's representative in New Brunswick issued an official proclamation Thursday restoring the original name of Government House.

Chiasson made the announcement as part of his annual New Year's Day public levee.

"It used to make sense to call it Old Government House when the RCMP had their headquarters here," he said. "But now it has become what it used to be. It is a residence of the governor.''

Chiasson said the word "old" has a certain connotation to it.

It makes sense to change the name since the residence resumed its service to lieutenant-governors a decade ago, Chiasson said.

"It has become a place for the people and a source of community pride," Chiasson said.

He noted that the home is a gathering place not only for the levee, but also on New Brunswick Day, as well as annually hosting hundreds of events and thousands of visitors.

Provinces such as Saskatchewan and British Columbia have a similar residence. In those places, he said, they are simply known as Government House.

Chiasson said he thought it was also important to rename the building because the site has great significance to the province's First Nations, Acadians and Loyalists, especially in the year that Fredericton has been designated one of Canada's cultural capitals.

Constructed from 1826-1828, the mansion was built as a residence for New Brunswick's governors and lieutenant-governors.

Until Confederation, most of the important decisions affecting the province were debated in the building.

Between Confederation and 1996, the building served a number of purposes.

From 1896 to 1900, it was a school for hearing impaired students.

It was a military barracks during the First World War and later a hospital for returning soldiers after the war.

From 1934 to 1988, the building was the headquarters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in New Brunswick.

In 1999, Government House again became the home to New Brunswick's lieutenant-governors.

Karen Sullenger, a U.S.-born professor of science education at the University of New Brunswick who was making her first visit to Government House as part of Thursday's levee, said she loved the sense of history she got from being in the building.

"You feel that this was a buzzing place," she said, noting it was like a window on history. "This building represents the heritage of New Brunswick."

She thinks restoring heritage buildings such as Government House is a good way to go.

"We have to look at it in a new way. Old is new."

Huguette Smyth, an Edmundston writer who travelled to Fredericton for the levee, said the name change is good move.

"You just have to look at all that is going on here," she said, speaking in French, "to see there is nothing old about it."